Rising from the ashes

In early April of this year, Giordano’s Recycling, Vineland, New Jersey, was the site of a three-alarm fire that originated in a pile of old corrugated containers (OCC). While the company’s Nick Giordano says employees evacuated safely from the facility, the same cannot be said of Giordano’s Recycling 18-year-old IPS baler, which was lost in the fire.

In short order, Cordele, Georgia-based Harris helped Giordano’s Recycling get back to baling the various recyclables it handles—high-grade paper; OCC; old newspapers; aluminum extrusions, siding and cans; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles; and shrink wrap.

Giordano’s Recycling has been a long-time Harris customer, Giordano says. To repay that loyalty, Harris built and delivered a Centurion 200 two-ram baler to Giordano’s Recycling in eight weeks rather than in the standard 16-to-20-week window, he says. The baler was delivered prior to the July 4th holiday and installed during the second week of that month.

The Centurion is a high-performance two-ram baler designed specifically for medium-to-high-volume operations. It features a large shear knife that is thicker and taller than traditional two-ram baler knives to handle the increased shear force from the main ram cylinder.

As of early August, Giordano’s Recycling was still ramping up its baling operations, but Giordano says he’s already seen the benefits of the new baler.

“It has allowed me to cut the second shift,” he explains, citing the Centurion 200’s “fantastic throughput” for the reduction in operating time the company has seen.

Giordano describes the bales the Centurion produces as “perfect,” adding that they are “tight and dense” to facilitate handling and loading. He says only four or five bales are needed to cube out an export container, making loading more efficient and quicker for his team.

Preprogrammed settings that are accessed using the baler’s touch screen contribute to the Centurion 200’s ease of use, Giordano says. “It’s very efficient when it comes to production.”

The baler’s wide infeed hopper, measuring 86 inches by 117 inches, also contributes to its ease of use, as large boxes do not need to be downsized prior to feeding them to the baler, he says.

In addition to its Centurion baler, Giordano says his family’s company operates an HRB two-ram baler from Harris that it purchased in 1984 and a shear/baler/logger that it bought roughly 10 years ago and that Harris customized at Giordano Recycling’s request with two load tables. This modification allows the machine to be loaded from both sides.

“All around, it doesn’t matter what you are buying, Harris is a good brand and a good company,” he says. “One of the reasons that we use them is because they understand the need for excellent service and support.”